To Jeffries Wyman 3 October [1860]
Summary
JW’s case of black hogs shows marvellous relation of colour and constitution.
Could JW get information about eyes of cave rat?
Was JW struck by length of hind legs of male cattle?
CD has long shared JW’s doubts that mutilations were ever inherited but Brown-Séquard’s case seems to settle question.
Is not case of cats with blue eyes being deaf very odd?
Spinal stripes on horse too common to explain in way informant supposes.
Believes Owen "goes a long way with us", though he attacked CD in Edinburgh Review.
"No one other person understands me so thoroughly as Asa Gray."
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Jeffries Wyman |
Date: | 3 Oct [1860] |
Classmark: | Harvard Medical Library in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine (Jeffries Wyman papers H MS c12) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2936 |
To John Scott 19 November [1862]
Summary
Praises JS’s experimenting.
Has he ever studied the relative fertility of varieties? CD very interested in this subject.
Discusses Acropera.
Wants to quote JS on Zea [Variation 1: 321].
CD sends his Primula paper [Collected papers 2: 45–63].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Scott |
Date: | 19 Nov [1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: B11–B14, DAR 147: 431 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3814 |
To Asa Gray 15 March [1862]
Summary
Gives some observations on changes in pistil position with age in Monochaetum. Asks whether AG can observe Rhexia for similar movements.
"One of the best men, though at present unknown", H. W. Bates, has taken up natural selection.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 15 Mar [1862] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (64) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3473 |
To J. D. Hooker 11 June [1862]
Summary
Sorry to hear of Mrs Hooker’s health and domestic problems. Wishes natural selection had produced neuters who would not flirt or marry.
Will be eager to hear Cameroon results.
Wishes JDH would discuss the "mundane glacial period". Still believes it will be "the turning point of all recent geographical distribution".
Pollen placed for 65 hours on apparent (CD still thinks real) stigma of Leschenaultia has not protruded a vestige of a tube.
"Oliver the omniscient" has produced an article in Botanische Zeitung with accurate account of all CD saw in Viola.
Asa Gray’s "red-hot" praise of Orchids [Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 34 (1862): 138–51].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 11 June [1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 155 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3597 |
To John Scott 12 April [1863]
Summary
Encourages JS to publish on sterility of orchids and to experiment on Passiflora.
Doubted Hooker’s poppy case.
Describes case of primrose with three pistils: when pulled apart allowed pollen to be placed directly on ovules. This supports JS’s explanation of H. Crüger’s case.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Scott |
Date: | 12 Apr [1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: B59, B77–8 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4084 |
To Asa Gray 26[–7] November [1862]
Summary
Discusses AG’s article ["Dimorphism", Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 34 (1862): 419–20]. Does not like the terms "dioecio-dimorphism" or "precocious fertilisation". Discusses the separation of sexes in plants; cannot doubt that hermaphroditism is the aboriginal state.
Discusses AG’s observations on orchids and his review of Orchids [Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 34 (1862): 138–51].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 26[–7] Nov [1862] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (50) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3830 |
To Asa Gray 24 February [1860]
Summary
Last sheets of AG’s review of Origin have arrived. CD’s comments and criticisms.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 24 Feb [1860] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (23) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2713 |
From William Henry Harvey 19 May 1864
Summary
Sends dandelion [enclosed] with peculiar form of achene; suggests this solitary "sport" must have arisen by sudden jump from normal type.
Author: | William Henry Harvey |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 19 May 1864 |
Classmark: | DAR 166: 116 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4503 |
To Asa Gray 20 March [1863]
Summary
Discusses the meaning of C. K. Sprengel’s term "dichogamy". Dichogamous plants are functionally monoecious; Primula is functionally dioecious.
Reports Hermann Crüger’s observations of Cattleya and of bees pollinating Catasetum. Crüger will observe Melastomataceae.
Has built a hothouse.
Fears Amsinckia cannot be dimorphic.
Ill health slows his work on Variation.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 20 Mar [1863] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (58) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4053 |
From Asa Gray 2–3 July 1862
Summary
Discusses dimorphic plants and the occurrence of "precocious fertilisation" in the bud.
Gives some comments on design in nature in the light of the translator’s commentary in the French edition of the Origin.
Reports the recent events of the Civil War.
[Note on verso of envelope:] Utricularia vulgaris is "about as neatly contrived for cross-fertilisation by insects as almost any orchid".
Author: | Asa Gray |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 2–3 July 1862 |
Classmark: | DAR 165: 110a, 112–12a |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3637 |
From J. D. Hooker [23 November 1864]
Summary
JDH’s "shock" that CD was awarded the Copley Medal.
Oliver, Thomson and JDH independently concur mature tendrils of Dicentra are foliar, though JDH remembers they were axial in the spring. Expects he and CD were fooled, but will have to look again next spring.
Praises CD’s Lythrum paper [Collected papers 2: 106–31].
JDH completing F. Boott’s work on Carex [Illustrations of the genus Carex].
JDH now does suspect Mrs Boott is illegitimate daughter of Dr Erasmus Darwin [see 4389].
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [23 Nov 1864] |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 254–7 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4667 |
To W. E. Darwin 22 June [1866]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Erasmus Darwin |
Date: | 22 June [1866] |
Classmark: | DAR 185: 15 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5131 |
To Asa Gray 2 January [1863]
Summary
Thanks AG for Cypripedium and Mitchella.
Plans to investigate pollination of Cypripedium.
Has finished Linum paper [Collected papers 2: 93–105].
Would welcome facts on "bud-variations".
Hears that Cinchona is dimorphic.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 2 Jan [1863] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (56) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3897 |
To Asa Gray 11 May [1863]
Summary
CD despairs when men like AG and Lyell consider themselves incapable of judging on change of species by descent.
Is confused over phyllotaxy.
Has been looking at Plantago lanceolata.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 11 May [1863] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (59) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4153 |
To J. D. Hooker 23 June [1862]
Summary
Has been ill (violent skin inflammation).
Has done hardly anything except tend to his experiments. Repeating Primula work has verified former results and very curious facts on sterility of homomorphic seedlings.
Wonders who reviewed Orchids for London Review & Wkly J. Polit..
Asa Gray also infatuated with Orchids.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 23 June [1862] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 156 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3620 |
To W. E. Darwin 19 [June 1866]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Erasmus Darwin |
Date: | 19 [June 1866] |
Classmark: | DAR 185: 14 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5125 |
Matches: 1 hit
To J. D. Hooker [9 May 1863]
Summary
Lists the six honest believers in his species theory in England.
Asa Gray complains that Lyell acts like a judge on species, whereas CD complains of Lyell’s indecision.
CD working on divergence of leaves.
Distribution of Cameroon plants and the glacial theory.
Survival of island relics.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | [9 May 1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 192 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4148 |
To John Scott 2 May [1863]
Summary
Impressed by JS’s attempts to fertilise Gongora.
CD has large collection of notes on orchids, but does not know when he will publish on them again.
Asks for JS’s papers on sterility of individual orchids and on Drosera.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Scott |
Date: | 2 May [1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: B25–6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4137 |
To Asa Gray 31 May [1863]
Summary
AG’s review of Alphonse de Candolle’s paper [Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 35 (1863): 430–44] is excellent.
Does not AG consider that orchids oppose Oswald Heer’s view that species arise suddenly by monstrosities?
Infers that AG cannot explain the angles of phyllotaxy; has been looking at Carl Nägeli on the subject.
Reports Gaston de Saporta’s belief that natural selection will ultimately triumph in France.
Is working slowly at Variation.
Reports his observations on the imperfect flowers of Viola and Oxalis.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 31 May [1863] |
Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (84) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4196 |
From Asa Gray 23 November 1863
Author: | Asa Gray |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 23 Nov 1863 |
Classmark: | DAR 165: 141 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4346 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Asa Gray, 1 September 1863 and n. 12, and Loring 1863 ). These would have reached CD at about the same time as two letters from Historicus appeared in The Times discussing the actions Britain should take as a neutral country when its shipbuilders built vessels for the American Confederacy (see The Times , 11 September 1863, p. 7, and 18 …
letter | (37) |
Darwin, C. R. | (27) |
Gray, Asa | (5) |
Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
Harvey, W. H. | (1) |
Walsh, B. D. | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (10) |
Gray, Asa | (9) |
Hooker, J. D. | (6) |
Scott, John | (3) |
Darwin, W. E. | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (37) |
Gray, Asa | (14) |
Hooker, J. D. | (9) |
Scott, John | (3) |
Darwin, W. E. | (2) |